One of the major hurdles for Pakistan in overcoming insurgency is its reluctance to draft an extradition treaty with India. As it stands, it is impossible for terrorists apprehended in India to be extradited back to Pakistan and vice versa. The two countries' tense relationship nearly came to a head last November following the Mumbai attacks, when Pakistan refused to extradite six suspected accomplices. The Indian government seemed convinced that the gunmen involved were of Pakistani nationality, and that the attack was planned in Karachi. To complicate matters, it was reported in Pakistan that the gunmen also received support from radical militants in Bangladesh.

To properly tackle militancy, extradition treaties are needed across south Asia. Laudable efforts such as 2006's joint anti-terrorism mechanism, drafted in Havana by the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh and former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, were quickly put on ice following the Mumbai attacks. With only one solid record of the first meeting, it is clear that some level of mediation is going to be required. A recent media report from Pakistan claims evidence provided by India regarding the Mumbai attacks is still indecipherable because it isn't in English.

In this case, any progress in combating terrorism relies on a shift in the political culture between the two countries. Right after the bombings that rocked Lahore on 27 May, the Pakistani Aaj TV network ran a special edition of the Bolta Pakistan political talkshow, with host Mustaq Minhas stopping just short of saying outright that the bombings originated in India. A brigadier who called in to the show said the root of terrorism in Pakistan is related to 19 Indian consulates on the Pak-Afghan border. This is an allegation that was proved false nearly two years ago, and its persistence shows the power of disinformation spread by elements opposed to peace between the two countries. Similarly, after the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in March, journalists from all three major news networks in Lahore, Express, Geo, and ARY, attributed the attacks to India's RAW intelligence agency. For Pakistanis, this assumption that all unrest in its borders comes from India should come as no surprise.

Without an arrangement for extradition, the trials of insurgents will operate sluggishly, as was the case with the charity organisation linked to the militant Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jamaat ud-Dawa. India had asked for the organisation and its network to be shut down, and asked for an extradition of the group's founder Hafiz Saeed in 2002, in connection to an attack on the Indian parliamentary building and 2006, after the Mumbai train bombing.

In each case, Saeed was put under house arrest, then released. It wasn't until last November's Mumbai massacre that the government has been able to meaningfully put a terror suspect under house arrest. After the subsequent third house arrest of Saeed, evidence has finally been brought to the Lahore courts linking Jamaat ud-Dawa to al-Qaida.

The attacks in Lahore and Peshawar last week are bad omens. The Taliban have issued threats against both cities and small villages. As long as both countries' behaviour remains predictable, those planning attacks will take advantage of the lack of extradition, with attacks in Mumbai being planned in Pakistan, or attacks in Swat or Lahore being planned in India. A break with tradition is necessary to take them on.